Quake Live Update Adds New Arenas, Tweaks Balance

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Quake Live issued an update last night, and the game's site details the new changes. Called the Premium Pak 6, the update offers a variety of fixes and balance adjustments, plus three new premium arenas available to subscribers.

The new maps include Concrete Palace (Duel), Dies Irae (TDM), and Skyward (CTF). Each is a creation from a member of the always-enthusiastic Quake community. The update also fixes a lag delay, and balance for the shotgun and machine guns, among various other fixes. Check out the full, long list of updates after the break.

Game Updates:

  • Fixed the quit lag/delay: Hitching on Windows systems will no longer occur when leaving the game. Furthermore, fixes have been made to properly shutdown the games sound system prior to quitting so that looped sounds cannot occur when leaving the game.
  • New Persistent Duel Play Queue: The duel queue now persists properly across map changes. Your position in the queue is also shown on the scoreboard.
  • Shotgun Pattern Calculation: Shotgun now fires in a fixed pattern on the server, what little per-pellet spread used to exist is now purely a client-side visual effect. 'cg_trueShotgun' cvar (default 0), when enabled will show the pattern that the server uses for collision when enabled, while 0 will keep the original behavior.
  • Minor Shotgun Balancing: All pellets for the shotgun will now do 5 damage (still 20 pellets, now 100 dmg total) in most gametypes. Spread has been increased from 900 to 1000.
  • Team Deathmatch Weapon Balancing: Machineguns and Shotguns both now do 4 damage per bullet in Team Deathmatch to reduce their dominance.
  • New Draw Item Pickup Multiplier: When a series of items are picked up, such as shards or 5hp bubbles, the Draw Item Pickup notification will now include a multiplier. (Works on all items, except power-ups.)
  • Fixed Player Head Bug: The correct head skin will be displayed for players whose personal model was set to a non-default player skin.
  • Fixed Team Balance Bug: Matches won't start if teams are unbalanced by 2 players, instead of 3.
  • Fixed UnnamedPlayer Exploit: Addressed various conditions that could result in a player losing his name and becoming UnnamedPlayer. Players will also now be kicked if their name gets changed to UnnamedPlayer.
  • Fixed Admin 'put' Command in Duel: No longer allow admin cmds to 'put' players onto the red or blue team in Duel, allow the choice of free or spec in non-team gametypes.
  • Fixed 'dropflag' Command During a Pause: Players may no longer issue the 'dropflag' command while a match is paused or in a timeout.
  • Added 'cg_itemFx' cvar: Change how items are rendered in the world. Default 7. 1 = bounce, 2 = rotate, 4 = scale when spawning
  • Added 'cg_simpleItemsRadius' cvar: Scale size of the icons when Simple Items is enabled.
  • Added 'cg_lightningImpactCap' cvar: Change the size of the lightning impact effect when impact is closer than x units, default 96 units.
  • Fixed Janet's Mipped Hair, the player model's hair will no longer improperly mip when picmip is used.
  • Game no longer crashes when attempting to 'give' an invalid item.
  • Slightly better flag positioning and image quality despite ignoring its proper aspect ratio.
  • Improved flag images, no longer get scaled on scoreboard. (only a slight improvement)
  • Fixed lightning stream bug that existed in third person while truelightning was enabled.
  • Fixed Premium scoreboard display when a player goes into spectator, forfeiting the match.
  • Reduced 'flag bounce' by half for dropped CTF flags.
  • Various maps and other graphical assets have had textures optimized for filesize/bandwidth usage, resulting in a smaller download.

cvars for Movie makers:

  • Added 'r_fastSkyColor' cvar: Change the color of the sky when using fastsky (default 0x000000) This can be used in order to create a green screen to film against.
  • Added 'cg_smokeRadius_dust' cvar: Scale size of smoke plume in ground dust
  • Added 'cg_smokeRadius_flight' cvar: Scale size of smoke plume in flight trail
  • Added 'cg_smokeRadius_haste' cvar: Scale size of smoke plume in haste trail

Web Updates:

  • Premium spawns will spawn and will only cycle through premium maps. Standard maps can still be callvoted as normal.
  • Changed sorting of server list, non-player launched premium servers should appear at the top.
  • Added timeout length and timeout amount to Start a Match controls. These are available under the Advanced Configuration.
  • Added frag limit, time limit, capture limit, and round limit to Start a Match controls. These are available under the Advanced Configuration.
  • Added damage dealt and damage received to match stats on website.

Map Updates:

  • Double Impact: Additional clipping added to walls in RA room.
  • Intervention: Teleporter trigger extended.
  • Ironworks: Fixed clipping on curved wall between pg and medkit.
  • Focal Point: Fixed unclipped ceiling, Fixed t-junction-like sparkles.
  • Overlord: Fixed 3 50HP bubbles that were stuck in the ground.
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  • reply
    February 3, 2011 8:16 AM

    In related news, according to John Carmack's Twitter id Software just turned 20! Dang...
    Happy birthday id!
    Free rockets and gibs for everyone?

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